For section 167 of the [1925 c. 49.] Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925 (administration bonds) there shall be substituted the following section:—
(1)As a condition of granting administration to any person the High Court may, subject to the following provisions of this section and subject to and in accordance with probate rules and orders, require one or more sureties to guarantee that they will make good, within any limit imposed by the court on the total liability of the surety or sureties, any loss which any person interested in the administration of the estate of the deceased may suffer in consequence of a breach by the administrator of his duties as such.
(2)A guarantee given in pursuance of any such requirement shall enure for the benefit of every person interested in the administration of the estate of the deceased as if contained in a contract under seal made by the surety or sureties with every such person and, where there are two or more sureties, as if they had bound themselves jointly and severally.
(3)No action shall be brought on any such guarantee without the leave of the High Court.
(4)Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any such guarantee.
(5)This section does not apply where administration is granted to the Treasury Solicitor, the Public Trustee, the Solicitor for the affairs of the Duchy of Lancaster or the Duchy of Cornwall or the Chief Crown Solicitor for Northern Ireland, or to the consular officer of a foreign state to which section 1 of the [1949 c. 29.] Consular Conventions Act 1949 applies, or in such other cases as may be prescribed by probate rules and orders.”
For section 25 of the [1925 c. 23.] Administration of Estates Act 1925 (duty of personal representatives as to inventory and account) there shall be substituted the following section:—
The personal representative of a deceased person shall be under a duty to—
(a)collect and get in the real and personal estate of the deceased and administer it according to law;
(b)when required to do so by the court, exhibit on oath in the court a full inventory of the estate and when so required render an account of the administration of the estate to the court;
(c)when required to do so by the High Court, deliver up the grant of probate or administration to that court.”
(1)The right of retainer of a personal representative and his right to prefer creditors are hereby abolished.
(2)Nevertheless a personal representative—
(a)other than one mentioned in paragraph (b) below, who, in good faith and at a time when he has no reason to believe that the deceased's estate is insolvent, pays the debt of any person (including himself) who is a creditor of the estate ; or
(b)to whom letters of administration had been granted solely by reason of his being a creditor and who, in good faith and at such a time pays the debt of another person who is a creditor of the estate;
shall not, if it subsequently appears that the estate is insolvent, be liable to account to a creditor of the same degree as the paid creditor for the sum so paid.